Passionate Opera TOSCA Takes the Stage at Tobacco Factory Theatres

Following their spectacularly successful production of Puccini's Madam Butterfly in 2014, Opera Project return to Bristol this autumn for a co-production with Tobacco Factory Theatres of another intensely dramatic and passionate masterpiece from Puccini - Tosca.

Tosca depicts the final hours of three of the most highly charged characters in all opera - Baron Scarpia (the ruthless and corrupt chief of the Roman police) the painter Mario Cavaradossi and his lover, the celebrated singer Floria Tosca. Rarely does opera lay witness to the demise of all of its major protagonists, but in Tosca we have it all - love, jealousy, lust, despair, torture and murder impregnate the story, from the opening escape of the political prisoner Cesare Angelotti to Scarpia's final posthumous act of betrayal.

Theatrically gripping from start to finish, the score is perhaps Puccini's most lavish, containing two of his most famous arias - Tosca's 'Vissi d'arte' and the brilliant tenor aria 'E lucevan le stelle'.

Opera Project has brought together another fantastic cast, who as usual will perform the opera in English. The title role will be performed by Mari Wyn Williams, whose opera roles include Lady Macbeth from Verdi's Macbeth and who was one of the Alvarez Young Artists at Garsington Opera last year. Also making their role debuts in Tosca are regular favourite, Welsh tenor Robyn Lyn Evans, singing Tosca's lover Cavaradossi and internationally renowned baritone Nicholas Folwell as the notorious Baron Scarpia. Nicholas is known throughout Europe and elsewhere for appearances in his signature role Alberich in Wagner's mighty Ring Cycle.

Opera Project's terrific twelve piece orchestra, central to the music and drama of this great opera, plays Jonathan Lyness's arrangement of the score.